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Historical Roadside Marker
Location:
N 34º 05.505 W 087 º 23.619
State Hwy 195
Double Springs, Winston County, Alabama
Godfrey College and High School
Founded in 1880 by Robert Gold Isbell, President, alumnus of Vanderbilt University, under the jurisdiction of the Northern Alabama Methodist Conference, one mile west on the Cheatham Road at the town of Motes, Elijah Blanton, Hugh W. Isbell, W.R. Atkins, and Andrew J. Ingle, Trustees. Two-story college building and three-story dormitory burned in 1889. Abandoned in 1893.
Date Visited and/or Photographed: April 7, 2008
Notes:
The Isbell family was quite large and produced enough children to populate a school. According to Vicki Wheeler Paine, Hugh W. Isbell and Robert Gold Isbell were brothers. Their sister Mary Ann”Polly” Isbell married the Elijah Blanton mentioned as a trustee of the college. Polly and Elijah had ten children. Hugh and his wife Sallie Thompson had ten children also. Robert and his wife Emma Madora Andrews were not as productive. They had eight children. (Isbell-L Archive at Ancestory.com)
The school was built in a town then called Godfrey, later Motes. The school and town were located at the intersection of the Cheatham Road which connected Moulton and Tuscaloosa and the Houston-Columbus Highway five miles south of the present site of Double Springs, Winston County, Alabama. Neither road now exists. After the 1889 fire school continued in the Methodist Church, but the buildings were never rebuilt. In 1893 Robert Isbell bought the Farmer’s College in Millport Alabama. Most of the students followed Isbell to his new school
A very detailed history of the College may be found at AlGenWeb site for Winston County (http://wcgs.ala.nu/).
Location:
N 34º 05.505 W 087 º 23.619
State Hwy 195
Double Springs, Winston County, Alabama
Godfrey College and High School
Founded in 1880 by Robert Gold Isbell, President, alumnus of Vanderbilt University, under the jurisdiction of the Northern Alabama Methodist Conference, one mile west on the Cheatham Road at the town of Motes, Elijah Blanton, Hugh W. Isbell, W.R. Atkins, and Andrew J. Ingle, Trustees. Two-story college building and three-story dormitory burned in 1889. Abandoned in 1893.
Date Visited and/or Photographed: April 7, 2008
Notes:
The Isbell family was quite large and produced enough children to populate a school. According to Vicki Wheeler Paine, Hugh W. Isbell and Robert Gold Isbell were brothers. Their sister Mary Ann”Polly” Isbell married the Elijah Blanton mentioned as a trustee of the college. Polly and Elijah had ten children. Hugh and his wife Sallie Thompson had ten children also. Robert and his wife Emma Madora Andrews were not as productive. They had eight children. (Isbell-L Archive at Ancestory.com)
The school was built in a town then called Godfrey, later Motes. The school and town were located at the intersection of the Cheatham Road which connected Moulton and Tuscaloosa and the Houston-Columbus Highway five miles south of the present site of Double Springs, Winston County, Alabama. Neither road now exists. After the 1889 fire school continued in the Methodist Church, but the buildings were never rebuilt. In 1893 Robert Isbell bought the Farmer’s College in Millport Alabama. Most of the students followed Isbell to his new school
A very detailed history of the College may be found at AlGenWeb site for Winston County (http://wcgs.ala.nu/).
